Since its public debut in 2008, Android has been the power user alternative to iOS. Didn’t want to feel locked down by the iPhone’s App Store? Interested in running full desktop websites circa 2009, Flash and all? Looking to set your own custom wallpaper, a thing the iPhone couldn’t do until 2010? All of these use cases had direct answers on early Android hardware. It was this flexibility — not to mention the iPhone’s exclusivity deal with AT&T and the success of the original Motorola Droid — that helped build Google’s mobile platform into what it is today.
These days, of course, iOS and Android have much more in common than they ever have. Pick up an iPhone running iOS 18 and you’ll find a customizable home screen filled with widgets, spaces between app icons, and emulators. Pick up a Pixel 9 Pro, and you might be surprised by just how locked down it can feel in comparison to Nexus devices from 10 years ago. These platforms have long since reached a level of maturity where what you’re buying from your local Best Buy has more to do with your ecosystem of choice than what you can actually do on the phone.
That said, Android remains a power user’s playground, even if plenty of once prominent features are buried behind restrictions, warnings, and secret menus. Based on the past week’s worth of news though, it seems like one of our most beloved utilities might be taking a massive blow to its ability to function. Thanks to an updated Play Integrity APK, developers can now effectively force users to download the version of their app hosted on the Play Store, rather than utilizing the sideloaded variant already running on their device.
That’s a scary thought — at least to me. I sideload applications all the time, whether to test new versions of software for updated features or simply because it’s faster than enrolling in a beta program for something I rarely use. Google’s even gone a step further, preventing sideloaded apps from being able to access specific admin-level privileges just for the sake of privacy, no matter what the end user wants. To me, sideloading is intrinsically linked with Android, and the idea of some developers pushing for me to use Google’s preferred storefront — which, huh, it happens to run — just feels wrong. As AP’s Dallas Thomas said in his weekly news roundup over the weekend, it feels like the Wild West days of sideloading are coming to an end.
So, I’m curious how often Android Police readers are sideloading apps onto their smartphones and tablets. I have a feeling it’s much more often than your average Galaxy S24 owner — remember, AP founder Artem Russakovskii also owns (and still runs) APK Mirror, so sideloading is practically in our DNA. Are you regularly sideloading apps these days, or have your installations become much more infrequent as Android has matured as a platform? Let us know in the poll — and the comments — below.
